Protection of the environment from ionising radiation in a regulatory context—an overview of the PROTECT coordinated action project

Howard, B.J.; Beresford, Nicholas A.; Andersson, Pål; Brown, Justin; Copplestone, David; Beaugelin­-Seiller, K.; Garnier‐Laplace, Jacqueline; Howe, P. David; Oughton, Deborah; Whitehouse, Paul

doi:10.1088/0952-4746/30/2/s01

Cited by 63 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…To assess the risk for each contaminated wetland is beyond the scope of this study but for the purpose of comparison to a screening value of 10 mGy h À1 , below which ecosystems are to be protected (Howard et al, 2010), all but one predicted dose in Steel Creek Swamp exceeded 10 mGy h À1 . For Utnora Swamp three predicted doses were above 10 mGy h À1 , while measurements showed that actual levels were up to two orders of magnitude lower.…”

Section: General Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting exposure of wildlife in radionuclide contaminated wetland ecosystems

Stark¹,

Andersson²,

Beresford³

et al. 2015

Environmental Pollution

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Many wetlands support high biodiversity and are protected sites, but some are contaminated with radionuclides from routine or accidental releases from nuclear facilities. This radiation exposure needs to be assessed to demonstrate radiological protection of the environment. Existing biota dose models cover generic terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, not wetlands specifically. This paper, which was produced under IAEA's Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety (EMRAS) II programme, describes an evaluation of how models can be applied to radionuclide contaminated wetlands. Participants used combinations of aquatic and terrestrial model parameters to assess exposure. Results show the importance of occupancy factor and food source (aquatic or terrestrial) included. The influence of soil saturation conditions on external dose rates is also apparent. In general, terrestrial parameters provided acceptable predictions for wetland organisms. However, occasionally predictions varied by three orders of magnitude between assessors. Possible further developments for biota dose models and research needs are identified.

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Section: General Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting exposure of wildlife in radionuclide contaminated wetland ecosystems

Stark¹,

Andersson²,

Beresford³

et al. 2015

Environmental Pollution

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“…High priority CRwo-soil values have been defined as those where: (i) the contribution of internal dose to the total weighted absorbed dose rate was above 70%, and (ii) the internal weighted absorbed dose rate was above 1E-3 μGy h −1 , assuming 1 Bq kg −1 dw soil. The choice of criteria values was partially based on a comparison with the 10 μGy h −1 default screening value in the ERICA Tool (Larsson, 2008;Howard et al, 2010;GarnierLaPlace et al 2008;Andersson et al, 2009). For example, assuming 1 Bq kg −1 dw in soil, an estimated internal dose rate of 1E-3 μGy h −1 means that 10,000 Bq kg −1 dw would be required in soil to result in a dose rate of 10 μGy h −1 .…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring methods to prioritise concentration ratios when estimating weighted absorbed dose rates to terrestrial Reference Animals and Plants

Howard

Wells

Beresford

et al. 2013

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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The ICRP and IAEA have recently reported Concentration Ratio values (CRwo-mediaequilibrium radionuclide activity concentration in whole organism divided by that in media) for Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs) and a wide range of organism groups, respectively, based on a common online database. Given the large number of data gaps in both publications, there is a need to develop methods for identifying the relative importance of improving currently available CRwo-media values. A simple, transparent approach involving the derivation and comparison of predicted internal and external weighted absorbed dose rates for radionuclides considered by ICRP (2009) for terrestrial RAPs is presented. Using the approach of applying a reference value of CRwo-soil = 1 or using the maximum reported values where CRwo-soil >1, we provisionally identify terrestrial radionuclide RAP combinations which could be considered low priority, notably: Ca, Cr and Ni consistently; Mn for all RAPs except Deer and Pine Tree; and Tc for all RAPs but Wild Grass. Equally, we can systematically identify high priority elements and radioisotopes, which largely, but not exclusively, consist of alpha-emitters (especially isotopes of Ra and Th, but also consistently Am, Cf, Cm, Np, Pa, Po, Pu, U). The analysis highlights the importance of the radiation weighting factor default assumption of 10 for alphaemitters in the ERICA Tool when comparing the magnitude of the internal dose and trying to identify high priority RAP-isotope combinations. If the unweighted Dose Conversion Coefficient (DCC) values are considered, those for alpha-emitters are often one order of magnitude higher than those due to some beta-gamma emitters for terrestrial RAPs, whereas with the radiation weighting factor applied they are two orders of magnitude higher.1.

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“…Assessing the biological impact of ionising radiation on nonhuman biota has been identified as a necessary approach towards protecting and mitigating the impacts of future radioactive releases on the environment by a number of international directives (e.g. ERICA and PROTECT [Howard et al, 2010;Larsson, 2008]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biological effects of ionising radiation on Crustaceans: A review

et al. 2015

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Historic approaches to radiation protection are founded on the conjecture that measures to safeguard humans are adequate to protect non-human organisms. This view is disparate with other toxicants wherein well-developed frameworks exist to minimise exposure of biota. Significant data gaps for many organisms, coupled with high profile nuclear incidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima, have prompted the re-evaluation of our approach toward environmental radioprotection. Elucidating the impacts of radiation on biota has been identified as priority area for future research within both scientific and regulatory communities. The crustaceans are ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems, comprising greater than 66,000 species of ecological and commercial importance. This paper aims to assess the available literature of radiation-induced effects within this subphylum and identify knowledge gaps. A literature search was conducted pertaining to radiation effects on four endpoints as stipulated by a number of regulatory bodies: mortality, morbidity, reproduction and mutation. A major finding of this review was the paucity of data regarding the effects of environmentally relevant radiation doses on crustacean biology. Extremely few studies utilising chronic exposure durations or wild populations were found across all four endpoints. The dose levels at which effects occur was found to vary by orders of magnitude thus presenting difficulties in developing phyla-specific benchmark values and reference levels for radioprotection. Based on the limited data, mutation was found to be the most sensitive endpoint of radiation exposure, with mortality the least sensitive. Current phyla-specific dose levels and limits proposed by major regulatory bodies were found to be inadequate to protect species across a range of endpoints including morbidity, mutation and reproduction and examples are discussed within. These findings serve to prioritise areas for future research that will significantly advance understanding of radiation-induced effects in aquatic invertebrates and consequently enhance ability to predict the impacts of radioactive releases on the environment.

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Protection of the environment from ionising radiation in a regulatory context—an overview of the PROTECT coordinated action project

Cited by 63 publications

References 25 publications

Predicting exposure of wildlife in radionuclide contaminated wetland ecosystems

Predicting exposure of wildlife in radionuclide contaminated wetland ecosystems

Exploring methods to prioritise concentration ratios when estimating weighted absorbed dose rates to terrestrial Reference Animals and Plants

The biological effects of ionising radiation on Crustaceans: A review

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